Agency Seeks to Have Court Orders Freezing Bank Accounts of NYS Scam Suspects Extended

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) wants freezing orders on bank accounts held by suspects in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal extended.

In an application, ARA, a government agency, wants the court to issue further orders extending the freezing period of 11 bank accounts held at Equity Bank.

Through lawyer Gitiri Jennifer, ARA says orders issued by the court in May have elapsed and there are fears that the cash in the accounts may be withdrawn and spent.

In documents filed in court, investigating officer Fredrick Musyoki says preliminary investigations established that billions of shillings were laundered from NYS and wired into several accounts between January 2015 and May 2018.

The agency also wants the court to issue orders to the manager of Equity Bank Head Office, Nairobi compelling him to submit the applicants certified copies of account opening papers, cheques and RTGS statements for the period between January 1st 2015, to date.

“That the preliminary investigations have established that the account under investigation has multiple transactions involving millions of shillings in various banks and entities requiring further investigations to establish the money trail and trace proceeds of crime,” reads court papers.

Musyoki further says the NYS case is of grave public importance and involves complex schemes of money laundering and proceeds of crime that is taking detectives a lot of time to unravel.